FAQ: Who funds The Zeitgeist Movement? Does it take Donations like most NPOs?

The Zeitgeist Movement Global and its Chapters rarely, if ever, engage in any form of public solicitation for money. There are no “open” donation pools as with many organizations. This is deliberate. The ethic promoted is in the interest of utilizing people’s time and energy, not their money. It is generally expected that those who are facilitating their Chapter and related Projects/Events are willing to allow for the inevitable financial losses they incur for the greater good. (For example, Peter Joseph, the founder of The Movement is the sole financier of the Global Chapter website, its Administration, along with the core Zeitgeist Movement “Main” events, such as Zeitgeist Day, Zeitgeist Media Festival, etc)

The only exception is the universal allowance of Official Chapters to generate and distribution a Shirt or similar supporting articles to help cover the costs of their website and/or related expenses. This is acceptable for it is also a culturally supported means of communication.

Any donations sought otherwise can only be time and project specific. For example, if a Town-hall requires $200 to obtain a venue, a trackable “Chip’in” Widget or the like may be setup in an effort to meet that exact value.

Likewise, events that require ticket sales must reflect a break even scenario within a certain threshold.

For instance, if the cost to rent a venue is $200 and the venue holds 50 people, the ticket price would be of $4.00 assuming full capacity will be met.

The integrity of The Movement and hence its members and chapters is reflected, in part, by the explicit lack of any financial gain inherent in the exercise. More importantly, it is also recognized that money is the most prominent corrupting factor in the world today, sociologically, and without that possible abusive propensity/interference, The Zeitgeist Movement will only strengthen these facts in its focus.